The Art Out There

Monday, October 31, 2011

Collin Chillag

Portrai of a Woman 2010 oil on linen 18"X24"

Portrait of a Man 2010 oil on linen 18"X24"

A Life Well Lived 2011 acrylic on canvas 60"X70"

Design For a House 2011 acrylic on canvas 54"X64"

It seems to me that Collin in Chillag is 2 or 3 (possibly even four) different artists. Not literally mind you. I'm not suggesting that a group of people are conspiring to convince us that there is one artist responsible for all their work. I'm suggesting more of a Sybil like multiple-personality thing. It makes it difficult to say anything about the artist's work because I'm not sure what the common denominators to all of it are. But the work that was recently featured in New American Paintings (#96) is a series of portraits executed in the manner of extremely detailed "paint by numbers". Only they're left half finished and he uses parts of the painting as the palette as well. It comes off with tremendous effect not least because of the faces he chooses. Both the subject and the technique suggest a kind of horrific banality at the dark heart of middle class America. But as I suggested there are other sides to the artist; odd collages and cryptic diagrams with references to scientific theories and cartoon animals. I'll have to follow up on this other side of the artist one of these days. In the mean time go check out his website colinchillag.com and if anyone can come up with a unified Chillag theory, let me know.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Steven J. Yazzie 3

"Intrusive Relationships" oil on canvas 66" x 48" 2011

"Road to Nowhere" oil on canvas 48" x 65"

"Permeable Paradise" oil on canvas 60" x 36"


"Colluvial Dream" oil on canvas 60" x 48"


"Modernity's Sunset" oil on canvas 48" x 60" 2011

This is my third post of Steven Yazzie's work and full disclosure, he is a friend of mine. Previously I only posted his work depicting coyotes in upscale homes (as in the piece directly above) and you can read my thought's on that here. But he also works in abstraction. The latest edition of New American Paintings was just published and these abstracts were included, so I'd just like to to say congratulations Steve. He considers these abstractions to be in a sense a response to landscape, and the deeptime processes of geology. Being a resident of Arizona there is an obvious suggestion of the red rock formations of the southwest. But his referencing of the land is oblique, going more after feeling than analysis. Painting, especially abstract painting when it works, is almost impossible to pin down. Why does it capture our attention and hold it? And yet it can. Just as we might be captivated by the strange beauty of a canyon formed by wind and water and the moving earth over millions of years. And that, my friends, is one hell of a trick.
Go to his website to see more work: www.stevenyazzie.com

Monday, October 24, 2011

James Naughton

"Mist Passing" 40x40cm Oil on Board 2010

"The Big Cloud" 31x20cm Oil on Board 2010

"The Valley and the Light" 80x60cm Oil on Board 2010

"Dark Cloud" 30x20cm OIl on Board

Something you don't often see in contemporary landscape painting is the kind of old fashioned quasi-mystical romanticism that was once the hallmark of some of the 19th centuries greatest practitioners. English artist James Naughton captures this sense of almost religious awe in the face of nature by depicting the land submerged beneath beneath a massive writhing atmosphere that seems less like mere weather and more like an immortal omnipotent presence that prowls the land. Though the paintings themselves are often fairly modest in scale the images nonetheless convey that sense of vastness, awe and wonder that was once depicted by artists like Albert Bierstadt, Caspar David Friedrich and Frederic Edwin Church. More proof that no mode of expression ever dies and that every part of art history is being made new again by somewone, somewhere in the world.
To see more tempestuous skyscapes over both land and sea, go to the artist's website: www.jamesnaughton.com

thanks to artistaday.com where I first saw his work.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Abstraction

My last post made me realize how little abstract work I've posted. I suppose it's no surprise. My own work is representational and very narrative. But still, the line between abstraction and representation is a vast gray area, and in the end all of it is just marks on a flat surface. Looking through my posts I put together this small collection from most of the abstract artists that I have included. Click on their name to see my earlier post and from there you'll find links to the artist's websites. (some of my earlier posts are very short)

Joseba Eskubi